Drying wood?

[Rcd567]

I bought a nice bowl blank, fresh cut and dipped in wax. Now my question is, how long do I let it dry? Do I melt the wax off it? Or will it dry with the wax on? I know several folks here turn them about 3/4 done then shelve them for a year or two. Don't they also split that way? Sorry about all the questions, I usually buy dry wood, but it's becoming hard to find at prices I can afford.

Thanks for your time.

 

[raar25]

Depending on the wood it can take a year if you just leave it on the shelf at room temp. One option is to turn it till it has a wall thickness of 1 1/2" wax the end grain only this is where most cracking starts and put it on the shelf, may take up to six months. What I did was found an old small refrigerator at the dump drilled a bunch of holes in it put a 20 watt light bulb and small fan in it and wallah! I have small wood kiln. I like to keep it aprox 95-100 deg F and the wood takes about a week to dry, just realize some pieces do crack, it is just the chance you take to speed up teh process. To minimize this so make sure you get rid of any pith on the log and pray.

 

[Dutra]

I turn my bowls to 1" thick or so, then i stick them in a brown paper bag with the shavings from that bowl. After 2 weeks or so remove the shavings so they dont mold. Takes a few months to dry them that way. ( Ive only been making bowls for a couple months so im sure there is a better way to do it, but ive had zero touble with cracking so far.)

 

[whegge]

I have had good success with using Denatured Alcohol. I rough turn the blank to about 1" thickness then immerse it in a bucket of Denatured Alcohol over night. Then in the morning, I take it out and wrap it in a brown paper bag leaving the bowl section open. Then set it on a shelf with the bowl pointed down and on sticks to allow air flow. Let it sit like this for about 4-6 weeks.

I weight the bowl after I wrap it and write the date and weight on the bag. I then weight it every week until the weight stops going down. Once that has happened the blank is now dry and ready to finish turning. I like this method mainly because I do not need to seal the wood with wax.

I have had bowls split on me but it usually is because I have to much of the pith in the bowl still. So, I try to make sure I rough the pith out of the blank before drying. I also have had problems with Cherry wood. I then do as Dutra does and wrap it in a bag with the chips from the turning.

 

[leehljp]

Boiling or Denatured Alcohol (DNA) are the two very good ways to prevent cracks. But don't boil with DNA! :roll eyes:

Here is a link with some done with DNA by our own William O Young:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f45/apricot-alcohol-93245/

Here is a link for boiling:
Boiling Green Wood to Reduce Drying Defects In Bowls and Platters

 

[robutacion]

I bought a nice bowl blank, fresh cut and dipped in wax. Now my question is, how long do I let it dry? Do I melt the wax off it? Or will it dry with the wax on? I know several folks here turn them about 3/4 done then shelve them for a year or two. Don't they also split that way? Sorry about all the questions, I usually buy dry wood, but it's becoming hard to find at prices I can afford.

Thanks for your time.

It is a fact most people prefer to buy dry woods ready to work, and those are always more expensive and not so easy to find. As a self wood gatherer wood-turner, wood-worker and wood seller, I've got a good understanding of the issue and while I prefer to put woods for sale only when they are at least @ -20%MC (moisture content) some of these woods are not yet dry enough to be safe on a start to finish turning piece.

If you need to buy your wood, try to buy a few blanks as often as you can and if they are very green to not yet ready, you can always decide on the common rough turning method and perform one of many systems that will allow that piece to dry out within a controlled environment . If they are green fully waxed and you don't want to turn then yet, leaving them fully covered with wax, will take twice longer to dry then, if you remove the wax from the flat surfaces and leave the wax only on the end-grain of the blank, where it tend to be more prone to splitting without waxing, this way allowing the wood to breath and dry faster.

Buying regularly, will allow you to build a stock of blanks that will have all stages of drying, after a little while and in no time you have always something dry enough to work with, and not having to buy and pay the excess cost of getting them ready to go.

Unfortunately, dry kiln adds a considerable cost to the wood/blanks while air dry cost nothing (sort off...!) but it requires lots of preparation, shelving/space and a long period waiting on a shelve that can not be used for anything else. This is one of the reasons why I and many other wood suppliers, have to sell it before it dries completely, which can take 2 to 5 years, depending of the wood type and blank size...!

Almost everyone, aren't aware of how easy and cheap is to get fresh cut logs from the local dump of from the local tree guys business, they will willingly give you more wood that you can poke a stick on, not every tree has quality wood but every tree has workable wood. The process of talking to people and go for a drive, particularly if you own a chainsaw, can provide better results than you think and or expect. A carton of beer for the tree guys, can get you the logs dropped at your front stairs, you you are in within reasonable distance from the job and the dump, well you may find there a bit of everything including some of the best woods sourced for wood-turning, that people didn't want...!

Painting the ends of the logs with any acrylic house paint, will keep it from cracking too badly, cutting the log's length a couple of inches longer than its diameter and then slipping the log in 2 halves (painting the end-grain) is the best way to preserved the wood for later. Green rough turning is the most economical way to produce turned items such as bowls, platters, plates, etc. It produces no dust, is easy on the tools cutting edges less strain on the lathe's motor, less strain on your arms, compared with heavy dense hardwoods.

By performing one of the many drying process available (some good ones mentioned above), after a few months doing it, you no longer need to be chasing/buying dry wood bowls to turn as the firs ones in the process line are ready and every week you will have a new batch of dry blanks. The quantity and time frame in between batches, is proportional to the number and how often you put blanks in the drying shelf already rough turned and treated. You find that 3 or 4 blanks rough turned every week will reach a point where, the blanks on the drying shelve, will stay there a lot longer than needed as you are too busy finishing the dry stuff...!

Obviously, all these suggestions do not help me much to sell my blanks BUT, that is not critical or something that I stress about, there will be always people out there that will never chase green logs and or go through the whole pain so, I will have always some wood for them, what I'm trying to achieve is the reduction of wasted wood that I see everyday, everywhere...!

Good luck...!

Cheers
George

 

[TerryDowning]

Great advice George.

Thanks for the tips. For sealing the end grain I use old latex paint that has not managed to hit the household hazardous waste disposal yet. It seems I always have some of thata round waiting to be used up.

Currently in my rotation pile I have several 2-4 inch plum and apricot branches and 4 Pine Log halve 12-14 " diameter by 2 feet long waiting to be turned into something. All form recent removal/pruning in my own yard. I just did not have room for more of the pine logs other wise I would have had a lot more of that as a 40 ft pine was removed from my back yard. Looking forward to see what happens with the Plum and Apricot. It's branch wood so it might not yield much, but there could be a gem or 2 in there. If anything I'll have some practice pen blanks or segmenting material.

Tree service owner said he could me pretty much get me anything I wanted in terms of logs. Local favorites Eucalyptus, Oak on may varieties, mulberry, sycamore, maple in may varieties, Olive wood, and many others. I just have to make room and get him delivering.

 

[Bowl Slinger]

I prefer turning green wood. It is easier on your tools, the sap keeps them cool and they stay sharper longer and there is no dust when working with it. Right now I have cherry, maple, plum, alder, honey locust, apple and madrone sitting in limbo waiting for me to have enough time to work them. It has been my experience that the thinner you turn the wall the less it will warp and crack. One secret is to make sure that the walls are cut equally from top to bottom. If you leave an area thicker it will warp differently than the surrounding areas. I turn my bowls to 1/4" to 1/2" thick and then place it on the shelf as is. No bags, no wax, no DNA. Out of the 300 plus that I have turned only 1 has cracked significantly. I keep that one the shelf as a reminder of what not to do because I turned it to 1" walls. The attached picture shows 2 maple, 1 apple and 1 cherry bowl that I cut, turned, air dried and finished in less than 1 month. They say that fruit wood is the hardest to air dry without cracking but I have not lost one yet. When people see this picture they say that I broke every rule in the book because I cut through the pith on the cherry and apple. As you can tell, it works for me. A suggestion is to use an oil finish so that you are nourishing the wood. I use 4 hand buffed coats of Minwax tung oil. The bottom line is, if you ask 10 people their opinion you will get 10 different answers. The right answer is: Experiment and find what works for you then refine your own methods. Hope this helps.

 

[ren-lathe]

If you do not turn it green drying works out to 1 year for every inch in thickness plus 1 year. A 3" thick bowl blank will take 4 years to dry. That is one reason to turn green. As others have said it is also easier to turn green wood than dry. If you have cast iron ways on your lathe put a coat of paste wax on them the wet wood chip will cause surface rust on unpainted surfaces especially if the wood has a high acid content such as oak. Also if you turn a piece that has a high moisture content you may get a bit wet yourself. The latex paint on end grain works but a product like anchor seal works a bit better. You will find that the bowls will distort to an oval as they dry. Some woods are worse than others. If you have the pith of the wood as part of the bowl you are more apt to have it crack at that point.

 

[Wildman]

Wood completely sealed in wax cannot dry. Wood drying process. simply a water removal process. Evaporation is one word would use to describe wood drying process. Yes, need air circulation too. Completely sealing wood in wax halts drying process.

You can scrap wax off sides of blank, leave end grain covered, and set aside for couple months or years.

You can rough turn it to 1/10th final thickness set aside to dry for couple months or years.

You can turn complete bowl thin 3/8" or less, sand and apply finish.

Factors which affect wood drying: species, density, closed or open grain, thickness and air circulation.

Here is a bowl turned 10/27/11 from Irene storm damaged Yellow Poplar wood. Have several rough outs sitting in corner of shop waiting final turning.

 

[TellicoTurning]

I've begun to turn a lot of green wood... mostly wood that's fallen to wind storms or such... there is a mother lode around Tellico Plains after the tornado, but my truck has given up the ghost, so no way to harvest right now.... anyway, I'll turn to almost finished size, then microwave the wood in 3-5 minute cycles on low until I feel it's getting relatively dry, then switch to a higher setting on the mw, still in 3-5 minute cycles... the wood will sometimes warp a little, but doesn't seem to hurt sales... people seem to like the other than round shapes.

I have an old Montgomery Wards microwave that I picked up at the local Habitat store for about $10... it'll take a bowl about 13" dia x about 8" high... haven't turned one quite that size yet, biggest has been about 12 x 4 or 5 but the mw has the capacity for the larger bowl.